As I take a bite from my second slice of peanut butter on toast outside on the steps I see something flying out of a car across the road; the car moves a few metres and stops outside the new apartment block and the driver hurls 6 more over his roof. I realised then that these were the morning newspaper rolls. In fact I am reminded more and more of Connecticut, where I stayed with my primary school friend Caroline, who emigrated back in the seventies. There are low picket fences (sometimes low brick walling) in front of the properties and each has an individual mailbox on a post beside the gate. Most properties are single storey and have corrugated roofs. Many are built up on stilts. I am told this is to allow air circulation, but it must have been a great help in the awful Toowoomba floods this year!
This afternoon Kylie and I went out for a drive to Connolly Dam…. Every place I’m taken to has a beauty all of its own. I will not go into too much detail here as we just stopped in various places and just sat and watched and listened to the feast of sights and sounds. However I have included a few illustrative photographs.
A couple of highlights during the afternoon however: Firstly at one place we stopped to view a pair of white faced herons nesting across an expanse of water, we heard a scuffling coming from inside a 44 gallon drum used as a waste bin. “Don’t go near it, probably a lizard” Kylie said, but we got more and more concerned for the plight of this creature that had obviously come down the tree into the drum and couldn’t get out again.
We nervously approached the bin to see if we could help but fearing it might be a killer snake or a dingo even, we held back. Finally Kylie held my camera over the top of the drum and took a photo to see what could be making such a commotion among the discarded bottles. It was a Goanna, a type of monitor over a meter long! Quite harmless but we were still unsure how to get him out as the drum was securely fastened to the tree with wire. Kylie had heard how, if you put a branch of wood out to a lizard, it would probably run straight up it and up you too and cause severe scratches, so we opted for tipping him out by levering the drum on it’s side from the bottom. He finally jumped to freedom and ran back up the tree where he settled peacefully on a high branch looking down at us. We stood admiring this incredible creature for some time and patted ourselves on the backs for doing our bit in reuniting him to the wild.
At dusk all the wallabies seem to come out to graze. I suspect they find cool places to sleep during the heat of the day. Kylie says they dig hollows to lie in. On our way home, many crossed in front of the car. We were still driving very slowly to keep a watch for wildlife. It was a bit like a Safari in Kenya. This is definitely an Australian Safari! I love the way, whenever we stopped the car, the wallabies all look up, standing high on their haunches with their ears pricked forward. A bit of a giveaway really as you would hardly notice them in the bush when they’re grazing.
I was fortunate enough to be able to photograph one of these quite close to the car with a little Joey in her pouch, soooo cute. A little later Kylie pointed out an Eastern kangaroo, much bigger and darker in colour than the wallabies. His strong, muscular legs propel him across the grasslands at speeds of 40 mph (60kmh). They are able to clear lengths of 25 feet (8 meters) and heights of 9 feet (3 meters)
As we returned to the suburbs of Warwick I commented on the design of a newly built house. Kylie then took some pride in showing me round the new estate of Darlington Park. I have to say the housing development was beautifully laid out and the architect had a wonderful project as each house was designed completely differently with plenty of glass and angled elevations. The roofs were still corrugated, which I’m told is the cheapest and most effective form of roofing material. However, they were painted in different tasteful colours and the emphasis was more on the frontages and interesting elevations. Each one even had its own mailbox more substantially built, however, from local sandstone, and individually designed as a feature. I must try and get some photos sometime.
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